Rugby Sevens has been introduced in the Brookside East Africa Secondary Schools Championships with effect from this year’s games to held in Huye District, Gisagara province, Rwanda on August 16-24.
The newly added 7s format competition will run alongside the 15s format competition which previously was the only format played in the regional championships which are sponsored by a Kenyan based milk processing firm Brookside Dairy.
The Federation of East Africa Secondary Schools Sports Association (FEASSSA) general secretary David Ngugi said rugby sevens was very popular and hence the need to nurture it from the grassroot at an early age necessitated its being incorporated in the school games.
The other sporting disciplines in the games are football, volleyball, netball, lawn tennis, hockey, handball, swimming , table tennis and basketball.
At the same time, in a bid to promote the games and sports tourism Brookside Dairy and FEASSSA have entered in to a partnership with Rwanda air to transport parents and fans from the East African region to Rwanda for the games at discounted airfare rates.
Rwand Air Kenya Country Manager Wivine Binagwaho announced that they will charge a flat rate of US$ Dollars 300 to parents, journalists and fans going to Rwanda for the games down from US$ dollars 380.
It is the second time Rwanda hosts the regional games, after 2008 when Kigali hosted the seventh edition. Tanzania hosted the 2014 games.
Six countries are expected to grace the ten day competition namely South Sudan, Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and hosts Rwanda to be graced by 3,000 participants.
Brookside Dairy Marketing manager Peter Wasonga said the best four basketball and two hockey players will be rewarded with education scholarships to study at Strathmore University in Nairobi.